CIDISS. The campaign season has arrived. At least for the next 7 months, many political promises will be given to the public from politicians, success teams, and pairs of presidential candidates and vice presidential candidates who compete in the 2019 General Election. The 2019 general election campaign has begun on September 23 2018 to April 13 2019. First time in history, Indonesia will hold general elections simultaneously. For organizing institutions, such as the General Election Commission and the General Election Supervisory Agency, the holding of elections is a new challenge.
Why is it called a new challenge? This is because the implementation is certainly done with a new system that has never been implemented before, so of course it is very reasonable if there are a number of deficiencies in its implementation. In addition to ensuring the smooth process, the organizers must also be able to ensure that the general election can become a party of the people, not a moment that can trigger conflict between supporters which can develop into greater conflict.
In politics, differences in views are common. Moreover, the country of Indonesia is a country that consists of many tribes, religions, races and groups so that it is very difficult to find common ground. But, if Indonesia can react wisely, this indicates that the Indonesian people are mature in democracy.
In a long period of campaign time, a number of groups will certainly spread messages and call for a specific candidate. This is a challenge for the supervisors and campaign teams of each participant to be able to prevent the spread of certain sentiments, especially those that lead to primordial. This requires the role of the community so as not to be easily provoked by certain issues that are trusted just like that without knowing the truth first. If the 2019 General Election can be carried out smoothly, then this will benefit all parties, especially for the Indonesian people.
By: Mirwan Achmad *)